The best budget fitness trackers

The Best Budget Fitness Trackers

The Best Budget Fitness Trackers

Decent, basic fitness trackers don’t have to leave a hole in your wallet. Whether it’s imports from China or the budget lines of Fitbit and Withings, there’s a fair few options out there: all types of looks, screens and no screens and prices.

The Best Budget Fitness Trackers

These devices are our choices for the best affordable trackers currently
on the market, for (about) $70 or less. None are perfect so be sure to read the full reviews so you know exactly what compromise is on offer. Make sure you also take a look at our guide to the best fitness trackers money can buy.

The Best Budget Fitness Trackers

Xiaomi Mi Band 2

The Best Budget Fitness Trackers

The Xiaomi Mi Band 2 is the latest from the Chinese purveyors of budget tech. In terms of activity monitoring the Mi Band 2 tracks time, steps and heart rate information. And in a Xiaomi first, the Mi Band 2 also offers inactivity alerts and will vibrate for incoming calls and texts. It’s pretty basic on the smart features front, but as a collective, there’s no budget tracker than can beat its spec sheet.

Amazfit Arc

With a heart rate monitor and strong battery life, the Amazfit Arc is a solid budget offering. However, while it offers a wide range of features, it doesn’t provide the depth of many of its more costly alternatives. Still, a good choice for anyone looking for something that ticks all the basic boxes and won’t be left longing for more analysis.

Misfit Flash

Like the Misfit Shine, the Flash can
track sleep and steps, be worn almost anywhere (including on the wrist), and
tell when you’re cycling and swimming. Like its predecessor it comes in a range
of colours, has a replaceable watch battery that lasts six months and syncs
with the same app. So what’s the difference? The Misfit Flash is chunkier and made of
plastic instead of aluminium.

Misfit Flare

Misfit seems to be phasing out the Flash, and Flash Link, so if you can’t get hold of one, consider the new Misfit Flare. Pros: the module is molded onto the band so it won’t fall off, it’s small, weighs just 8.5g and won’t draw attention to itself. Plus it acts as a remote and smart home button once you set it up. Cons: it’s more expensive than the Flash and only has one LED so can’t tell the time. Look out for a review very soon.

Withings Go

Tracking steps, distance, calories and sleep, the Withings Go can be clipped to your clothing or worn on the wrist. The basic looking display does have its upsides: the eight-month battery life from a single coin cell battery is highly impressive and means no charging. The Withings Go is water resistant up to 5 ATM (around 50 metres), and that does mean you can take it swimming. It also has the ability to automatically track swimming, but you only get duration and calorie burn data.

Polar Loop 2

Polar’s fitness tracker sequel adds smartwatch-style features and beefed up build quality, and has notifications for Android and iOS users. The second generation activity tracker will display smartphone notifications for incoming calls, messages and calendar alerts, as well as measure distance, steps, sleep and calories. It even politely vibrates if you’ve been sitting down too long.

Fitbit Zip

This is Fitbit’s least capable fitness tracker, but it’s
still a useful bit of kit – there’s no sleep tracking and no way to measure
elevation, but steps, distance and calories are all covered, and the Zip has
wireless syncing capabilities too. Add to that the rock-solid Fitbit software and platform and
it’s an appealing choice for anyone who wants to keep things simple on a
budget.

Archon Touch

Only available in the UK for now, the Archon Touch fitness tracker comes at a bargain basement price. You get steps, calories and sleep tracking and a tiny screen which you can summon your stats, and swipe through using your finger. There are some smart features too, with snippets of messages and incoming call details flashed on the screen. It’s not pretty or elegant, but it is usable at a very low price.